Mughal-e-Azam can undoubtedly be deemed as one of the best Indian movies ever produced. It was and still is revered as a cinematic marvel; maybe that is why it was re-released in 2004 in a coloured version. The stoic, bushy moustached Punjabi Prithiviraj Kapoor plays the role of the great Mughal emperor Akbar and quite similar looking, of course without the significant bushy moustache, Dilip Kumar plays the role of his son Salim better known to the world as Jahangir. The larger-than-life charisma of both the actors remain relevant even today and might have been increased when Hritik Roshan donned the role in Jodha-Akbar. The sharp-nosed, green-eyed, handsome hunk with 21st century trained muscles is there to remain in our minds and hearts as a young but wise Mughal ruler who is still stepping towards greatness.
Yet if we go on to judge the historical and factual accuracy of the appearances of these characters, we might get hit with dismay. While cultural appropriation has always been there in cinemas of the west, mostly Hollywood, Indian cinema too has never walked a slow stride in casting a “saleable” actor to play characters where the actor’s personality may be nowhere near the real-life person. We have seen Priyanka Chopra Jonas play the role of Mary Kom, a Manipuri boxer when there was no dearth of extraordinary Manipuri actors. We have seen Nepali actors play the roles of Chinese or Japanese characters with some makeup and strange behaviourism. We have seen moviemakers cast a Mumbaikar to play the role of a Nepali who keeps on saying “Shaabjee” after every sentence to make his role more convincing. To sum it up we have seen a lot of stereotyping in Bollywood. But what I’m going to talk about is, while it imprinted in our minds that early Mughal emperors were the quintessential Urdu speaking, kohl wearing, tall, brown handsome men with a well combed and maintained beard topped with awesome locks of hair, in reality, however, they were not.
It begins, as it must, from Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire or the Gurkani empire as they had called it during their times. He was a direct descendant of Timur from his father’s side and a descendant of Genghis Khan from his mother’s side. Both Genghis Khan and Timur shared a common ancestor, Tumanay Khan. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that Babur looked no different from other Mongol rulers complete with striking Mongoloid features including narrow almond-shaped eyes and a short flat nose. Even his son and grandson had significant Mongoloid features. Mothers of Mughal emperors, post-Akbar, were from the Indian subcontinent. Hence, slowly but surely, the Mongoloid features withered away. Further, according to Hippocrates of Kos, factors such as geography and climate played a notable role in the physical appearance of different people.
While there are paintings that might have shown Akbar as a person who looks more like a Rajput than a descendent of someone from Mogulistan, earlier painters commissioned by Akbar himself portrayed him as a ruler of Mongoloid appearances. Painters of the 1600s like Govardhan or Daulat Khan painted Akbar with slanting eyes and a wide but not too fat body. His famous moustache too, lacked hair in the middle, just like any Mongol commoner. Although genetically Akbar was not a full blood Mongol, he still possessed the features.
Recently in a web series, The Empire, the role of Babur is played by Kunal Kapoor, a tall, brown-skinned, bright-eyed man who does not, at all, look or even tried to look like the real-life Babur. Similarly, the role of Shaybani Khan was played by the Italian Indian actor Dino Morea, who has battle scars and long hair wears kohl and is unusually brutal, quite similar to the character of Allauddin Khilji played by Ranveer Singh in Padmavat. But in fact, Shaybani Khan was a warlord of the Chagatai Khanate and looked more like Song Kang-Ho.
Cinema and entertainment industry is no longer bound to the political boundaries of a nation; rather these days it has transcended any physical, political or demographic boundaries. In times like these, making movies by keeping actual physical appearances intact might have resulted in an unexpected gain. Undoubtedly it is either made so for the sake of selling a movie to a crowd who is accustomed to seeing a Mughal emperor as a person with Hindustani-Persian features or for the plain simple scarcity of actors. With the viewers evolving today, who are accepting bold and unconventional takes on stories and movies, I think it is about time to experiment with movies by casting actors that look similar or at par with the actual person they are personating.
Image Courtesy-
- Prithiviraj Kapoor as Akbar
- Kunal Kapoor in The Empire – Streaming on Disney+ Hostar
- Dino Morea in The Empire – Streaming on Disney+ Hostar
- Other pictures have a CC license
